Next generation motherboard architectures will support faster speeds than some motherboard components are currently able to support. For example, the 5th generation of PCI-express architecture will support differential signal speeds of up to 32 giga-transfers per second, yielding 128 gigabytes per second in full duplex networking configurations. Despite the bandwidth potential of some of the motherboard components and next generation central processing units (“CPUs”), the socket between the CPU and the motherboard is a bottleneck in current CPU socket designs. In particular, current CPU socket contacts are a bandwidth bottleneck between the motherboard and the CPU because the CPU socket contacts have impedance characteristics that are not well-designed for higher frequency operation.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.